This blog is dedicated to treating everyone - clients, prospects, friends, and family - as valuable partners. We should show them our gratitude through all our actions, including our marketing.

December 30, 2012

Appreciation Marketing – Resolutions

Here we are again, at that point where many of us create a
list of changes that we want to make in our lives this coming year. We have
these great intentions of “cleaning up the mess” that we may have made during
the past year. If we didn’t “make a mess”, we want to do better and correct
some flaws in our lifestyles and improve what we do, say, or think. Do you
really believe that it is this easy?

Then there are people who do not make any resolutions. Some
do not believe that they need to change anything about themselves; some believe
that they are incapable of making any changes, no matter how much those changes
may be needed. Some people make resolutions, never believing that they will
keep any of them; others make resolutions under the guise of humor, never
planning to keep them or because their family members pressure them to at least
try to make changes in their lives.

Of course, there are people who make the same resolutions
every year, never accomplishing anything towards changing any part of their
lives. They may be certain that they will fail to change their lives for the
better when they make the resolutions, or they may have the best intentions,
but they never take the steps necessary to fulfill these changes. Maybe they
don’t have the support of their families, friends, or others in their lives,
but the ultimate fault rests on their shoulders.

Where do you belong in this listing of people; who do you
closely resemble? Maybe you agonize over this process each year, striving to
improve your life, but knowing that you will default to your old ways of
living, and finding the same results. The stress does no one any good, and the
process is not worth that agony. Maybe you believe that you don’t need that anxiety
and want to get on with things as normal. Whatever your belief or intention or
actions of the past, this year why not try something new and different?

This year recognize your faults, including the non-ability
to make and keep resolutions. However, this year try to make resolutions that
resemble baby steps. The longest journey starts with a single step; make the
resolution to take that single step. Then resolve to take another, and then
another, until you have made the transition to where you want to be. Who says
that resolutions have to be made at the first of the year? Make them anytime
that you want. Then adjust them as you go along, making the next steps as new
resolutions.

This sounds just like goal setting doesn’t it? It is goal
setting under another name. When you make goals, whether in your personal or
your business life, you need to adjust them as you accomplish stages, or small steps,
always raising the bar so you have a new goal to which to strive. Resolutions
are no different than goals. Make small resolutions, and then adjust them so
that you are always growing. The stress is less than striving for some
difficult or perhaps looming goal. The reward will be self fulfilling, and you
will anticipate the next step.

Make your resolutions simple, attainable, and rewarding. Include
Appreciation
Marketing in your resolutions, making it your way of life, in both your
business and personal lives, and you will benefit from all that great karma
that you will be spreading to others. Please leave me your comments about your
thoughts on this, or call me at 360-314-8691, or email
me at Jim@SOC4Now.com. I challenge you
to express your gratitude to others for everything that they do, for you or everyone
else. It will make your new year that much better, and more profitable.

1 comment:

Hi JimI am one of those people who do not make Resolutions because I make changes as I go along. The "new year" is not a time to add more stress of deciding what changes need to be made. What is wrong with recognizing faults as they show up and making small corrections all year long?